The following Columbia MBA interview questions report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant.
The interview was at the alum’s place of employment. I was dressed formally and prepared fairly diligently by using personal resources as well as some of the posts found here. When I was given my choice of interviewers, I found that all of the alum offered were recent graduates. My alum was more or less of my age.
We ran through some of the typical talking points:
- Walk me through your résumé.
- Why B-school?
- Why Columbia?
- What I will add to Columbia?
- Backup plan if I don’t get in (I’m an entrepreneur and this question was stressed big time).
- Am I applying to other schools, and specifically, to what other schools am I applying?
I went through each of the questions and felt fairly prepared for each response. I felt comfortable, but tried to not let my guard down too much. I think that balance is key in these “casual” interview situations.
I would advise candidates to be on guard for alum interviews with a hyper-competitive tone. Although the interview was supposed to be “pretty casual,” and indeed my interviewer seemed nice at the outset, the conversation quickly turned into a constant comparison of my profile with that of my interviewer and her friends.
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